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Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour and Bing Crosby in Road to Bali (1952)

Road to ... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, many of them supposedly ad-libbed by Crosby and Hope during filming.

Films in the series [edit]

• Road to Singapore (1940)
• Road to Zanzibar (1941)
• Road to Morocco (1942)
• Road to Utopia (1946)
• Road to Rio (1947)
• Road to Bali (1952)
• The Road to Hong Kong (1962)

Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour

Each film is not simply a comedic film, but a satire of some of the popular film genres of the day, including jungle, Arabian nights, Alaskan adventure, and high seas. The final film not only comes much later, but involves a newer genre; Hong Kong spoofs the spy films of the sixties.

In 1977, an eighth Road to ... movie was planned titled Road to the Fountain of Youth; however, Crosby died that year of a heart attack.^[1]

In 1947 Astor Pictures released a compilation film of several of Crosby's Educational Pictures short subjects called The Road to Hollywood to evoke the series.

In Sweden, the first film was given the title Två glada sjömän går iland (Two Jolly Sailors Go Ashore), which led to the subsequent films in the series all being given a title beginning with Två glada sjömän ..., except for the last film, which was instead called Vägen till Hong Kong (a direct translation of the English title).

Ownership [edit]

The films have a complex ownership history.

• Singapore through Utopia were originally released by Paramount but these films, which were part of Paramount's pre-1950 "classic" library, ended up with EMKA, Ltd., today part of NBC Universal Television Distribution, with sister company Universal Studios handling theatrical and video distribution.
• Rio and Bali were made jointly by Hope and Crosby and released through Paramount. Distribution for these films today rest with Sony Pictures Television and FremantleMedia. The copyright to Bali, however, has lapsed.
• The final "Road" film, The Road to Hong Kong, was released through United Artists, which still owns it via its sister company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. SPT co-distributed the film on television for a short time after a Sony-led partnership bought MGM.

Running gags [edit]

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Rumor^[who?] has it that, during the filming of ...Singapore, Dotty Lamour said to the camera, "Hey fellas, I haven't had a line for ages!" From that time on, the scene was set for what was one of the most enduring franchises in the history of motion pictures.

Beginning with Road to Singapore the films also included in-joke references to other Hollywood actors and jabs at Paramount Pictures, the studio that released all the films except for The Road to Hong Kong. There are also frequent instances in which Bob Hope breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly, such as in Road to Bali, in which he says, "[Crosby]'s gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn."

Hope and Crosby would usually play some form of con artists trying to make a lot of money, with Bing coming up with the ideas and Bob usually doing the dirty work.^{[citation needed]}

Bob Hope & Bing Crosby sing and dance during "Chicago Style" in Road to Bali (1952)

When confronted by the villain, Hope and Crosby would use a "patty cake" routine before throwing punches, though this would sometimes not work, as in Road to Morocco: "That gag sure gets around, huh?" "Yeah, right back to US!" The only film in the series in which the routine was not used was in Road to Utopia.

Both characters would usually promise to not allow women to interfere with their plans, and both would immediately see a woman and forget that promise. Crosby would almost always get the girl, with the exceptions being in Road to Utopia and Road to Rio.

Hope's character usually would have a nickname with which he would be referred to throughout the film, as in Road to Morocco, when he was called "Turkey", and Road to Zanzibar, in which he was called "Fearless".

Hope would also break the fourth wall continuously to over-act, often with an upbraiding from Crosby. Hope would then blame his overacting on his attempt to win an Oscar. In reality, Hope never won any Oscar for his work, although he did receive honorary Oscars. Later, when Hope was a regular Oscar host, he incorporated his half-serious, half-joking "Oscar-bait" whines into his monologues there.

In popular culture [edit]

With Jane Russell in Road to Bali

• The April 20, 1960 episode of The Danny Thomas Show, titled "The Road to Lebanon," featured Bing Crosby scouting locations in Beirut for a new Road picture without Bob Hope.
• The animated TV series Family Guy has had six "Road to ..." episodes, with a seventh planned^{[citation needed]}, that spoof the original Road pictures, starring Brian and Stewie Griffin: "Road to Rhode Island", "Road to Europe", "Road to Rupert", "Road to Germany", "Road to the Multiverse", and "Road to the North Pole".
• Spies Like Us, starring Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, is an homage to the films; Hope makes a cameo as himself in one scene.
• Three episodes of Taz-Mania spoofed the Road to.. movies, starring Hugh Tasmanian Devil (Taz's father, a Crosby parody) and his brother Drew Tasmanian Devil (parodying Hope). The episodes were "Road to Tasmania," "Return of the Road to Tasmania Strikes Back" and "Yet Another Road to Tasmania."
• The Duckman episode "Road to Dendron" spoofs the series.
• The Talespin episode "Road to Macadamia" pays tribute to the series, including spoofs on the songs.
• The They Might Be Giants song "Road Movie to Berlin" references the films.
• The film Ishtar was envisioned by director Elaine May as an homage to the "Road" series.^{[citation needed]}
• The comic book series The Adventures of Mac and Trouble pays direct homage to Hope and Crosby 'Road' pictures, in both its description and creator Rusty Gilligan's writing style.^{[citation needed]}
• In the 1981 Mel Brooks film History of the World, Part I, on escaping from the Romans, Brooks and co-star Gregory Hines parody the series "We're off on the road to..." signature song by singing "We're off on the road to Judea, we certainly do get around..."

References [edit]

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